Concentration Camp memorials in Eastern Germany since 1989

From the perspective of the late 1990s, this paper considers the efforts made by the GDR and, after reunification, the FRG to render concentration camp sites at Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbruck fitting memorials to Holocaust victims. A major problem was the common denial of Holocaust guilt by both countries. Another was the GDR's attempt to exploit the camps and their histories for the purpose of Cold War propaganda. Such exhibitions as were mounted in East Germany downplayed Nazi racism, simplistically blamed economics for the rise of Nazism, overestimated German anti-fascist resistance, and soft-pedalled the perpetrators' motivations. However, prospects for a more fitting series of memorials looked good at the close of the 20th century.